Psvcnornysiotoay Copyright © 1992 by The Society for Prychophysiological Research, Inc Vol. 29, No. 1 Printed in USA. Physiological Arousal and Perception of Bodily State During Parachute Jumping Department of Medical Ps MANFRED SCHEDLOWSKI AND Uwe TEWES. chology. Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany & parachute jump in 36 male sport paracht wutists with differing degrees of experience. The recordings were analyzed at 12 psychologically relevant points in time along with the subjective jumps. However, the two groups displayed nearly differing significantly from each other only in the level of thei experienced jumpers seem to be better informed about their state of ph; the jump than are novice jumpers. These results process, postulated by Epstein (1967). 1 arousal. Novice parachutists showed a higher degree of self-rated arousal during, parallel curves for heart and respiration rates, respective heart rates. Furthermore, logical arousal during do not confirm the proposed anxiety inhibition DESCRIPTORS: Parachute jumping, Heart rate, Respiration rate, Anxiety, Visceral perception. The intense emotional stress before, during, and after a parachute jump and the high degree of ex- Perimental control associated with the normal course of a jump formed the basis of a series of Psychophysiological experiments on coping with anxiety and stress, In an experiment by Epstein and Fenz (1965), 33 experienced (over 100 jumps) and 33 inexperienced (1-5 jumps) sky divers rated their fear and feclings of avoidance at 14 different points in time from “one week before the jump” until “after landing.” The course of the curves for ex- Perienced and inexperienced jumpers displayed im- Portant differences. Whereas the anxiety for the in- experienced jumpers rose continuously from the first point of measurement until the signal to jump and then fell again sharply, the experienced sky di- vers reached their peak of anxiety appreciably ear- lier, “on the morning before the jump.” After that, their anxiety fell steadily until the real moment of danger (the exit) then rose again until landing. Fenz and Epstein (1967) used the results of the subjective fear ratings in a further experiment to examine their views about the physiological param- eters that correspond to anxiety. A polygraph in- stalled in the aircraft was used to measure heart Tate, respiration rate, and skin conductance in 10 experienced (more than 100 jumps) and 10 inex- Address requests for reprints to: Dr. Manfred Sched- lowski, Department of Medical Psychology, Hannover Medical School, Konstanty-Gutschow-StraBe 8, 3000 Hannover 61, Germany. 95 perienced (1-10 jumps) sky divers at 14 different points in time preceding and following a parachute jump. All three physiological measures displayed essentially the same pattern, although there were clear differences between experienced and novice parachutists. For inexperienced sky divers the curves of the physiological parameters resembled the graphs of their subjective fear ratings. There was a steady climb up to the point of maximum self-rated fear (final altitude) and then a falling back again. The experienced jumpers showed significantly lower values than the novice jumpers in all three physi- ological measures. Further, in contrast to the steep- ly rising gradients displayed by the beginners, the experienced jumpers showed inverted U-shaped curves and their peak of physiological arousal, when compared with the self-rated fear, lay closer to the threatening event (exit). For the authors, this was confirmation that the psychological and phys- iological reactions to stress of novice sky divers run parallel, whereas in experienced jumpers the psy- chological reactions precede the physiological ones, This dissociation led to the proposal that psycho- logical fear and physiological arousal are distinct concepts. The recording of heart rate, respiration rate, and skin conductance described in the above experi- ments was terminated prior to the goal (exit), so that no information was available about the differ- ences in physiological arousal between experienced and novice sky divers during the jump itself, the96 Schedlows real point of greatest objective danger. Studies in which there is continuous measurement of heart rate, including the period from after the exit until the landing, report the heart rate curves to follow an almost parallel course in experienced and novice jumpers. Reid and Doerr (1970) in a study with seven parachute jumpers reported that the heart rate decreases with increasing jump experience. However, novice and experienced jumpers pro- duced parallel running heart rate curves with the peaks during parachute deployment and landing. Shane and Slinde (1968) recorded heart rates of 29 experienced jumpers from exit to after landing and reported heart rate averages between 148 and 178 bpm during this time. Moreover, they were not able to find the expected negative correlation between the jump experience and the heart rate values. De- roanne, Cession, Juchmes, Servais, and Petit (1975) found that the two groups showed similar heart rate curves during exit and parachute deployment and only the last two points of measurement differed significantly, namely after parachute deployment and before landing, when experienced jumpers showed lower heart rates compared to novices. Sim- ilar results were reported by Reid, Doerr, Doshier, and Ellerson (1971), who recorded heart rate and respiration rate from 18 sky divers at 9 different points in time. Novices showed higher heart rates than experienced parachutists. However, the heart rate curves were almost parallel for the two groups. Unfortunately, no results concerning psychological fear reactions were presented in these studies. Taking as their starting point the question of which psychological, physiological, and endocrine reactions accompany the process of coping, Ursin, Baade, and Levine (1978) examined 44 military parachutists during their training at the jump tower and during their first jumps from an aircraft. For all hormones measured, namely cortisol, catechol- amines, and growth hormone levels, there was a clear reduction from the first jump; this was not the case with the cardiac response. The heart rates were constantly high during the continuous jumps. The authors attribute the moderate physiological arousal of the experienced jumpers in the study of Fenz and Epstein (1967) to selective personality fac- tors or to an overtraining effect of the experienced jumpers. As a follow-up to the sky-diver experiments of Epstein and Fenz (1965) and Fenz and Epstein (1967), the present investigation pursued the ques- tion of whether there are experience- and/or per- sonality-related differences in physiological arousal and in the subjective perception of that arousal dur- ing the situation of extreme stress triggered by a parachute jump. ind Tewes Vol. 29, No. 1 Improvements and advancements in psycho- physiologic measuring equipment enabled heart rate and respiration rate to be recorded throughout the investigation particularly at the time of greatest danger (exit to landing). Furthermore our chosen method of recording the self-rated psychophysio- logical arousal differs from the method of Epstein and Fenz (1965). To investigate whether the per- ception of bodily state follows the same pattern as the fear reactions described by these authors, we asked the subjects to rate their perceived psycho- physiological arousal at different points in time rather than the intensity of their fear. By using this method we also avoid denying tendencies by using terms like fear or anxiety. In addition, by compar- ing the self ratings with the physiological variables, awareness of bodily state during the phases of high and highest physiological arousal could be assessed. Method Subjects Eighteen male experienced jumpers (107-2500 jumps, X = 908) aged 22-45 years (X = 30) and 18 male inexperienced jumpers (1-6 jumps, X= 3.7) aged 18- 35 years (X=23.5) took part in the investigation. The groups differed significantly in age, (34) = 3.32, p<.01. The subjects were healthy at the time of the experi- ments, All subjects expressed their willingness to co- operate on a voluntary basis and without monetary compensation. Apparatus Physiological recording was performed using a Bio- port system produced by Firma ZAK GmbH. The Bio- port is a processor-controlled system for signal-ad- justed data reduction and for the processing of biosig- nal data outside of the laboratory. It comprises three parts, the Bioport-Pocket (processor/memory), the In- terface-Koffer, and the Bioport-Auswerter. Full details of this measurement recording system are published elsewhere (ZAK, 1982). Heart rate was recorded with Ag/AgCl electrodes in the lead II configuration. Prior to electrode attach- ment, the skin of the subject was thoroughly cleaned with a lipolytic solution. The heartbeats were recorded each second and the respective time readings were av- raged over intervals of 10 s. Respiration rate was re- corded with an active respiration recorder (respiration belt) placed around the chest of the subject according to the principle of Piezo. The respiration signal was amplified in an impedance adapter located in the con- necting cable and transmitted to the Bioport-Pocket. An activation recorder placed on the chest of the subject measured the motor activity of the subjects on three axes. The resulting three values were summed and recorded as a measure of activity. This activity recording made it possible to examine the relationship between heart rate, respiration rate, and motor activ- ity, and to control for activity by using it as a covariateJanuary, 1992 in the analysis of the physiological measures. The ac- tivity signal also made it possible to distinguish among the relevant phases of a parachute jump, exit, para- chute deployment, and landing. The events such as waiting for the plane, before boarding, after boarding, at take-off, and at 500 m could be marked on the Bio- Port-Pocket. Procedure The data were analyzed at 12 separate points in time, The measurements at the points on the evening before the jump (1) (between 6:00 and 9:00 p.m.) and ‘on the morning before the jump (2) (between 9:00) were taken in a separate room at the . Approximately a half hour before take-off, subjects were equipped with measuring devices. The points waiting for the plane (3) (15-20 min before boarding the plane), before boarding the plane (4), after boarding the plane (5), at take-off (6), and at 500 m altitude (7) were noted by the jumpers themselves. The points just before exit (8), just before parachute deployment (9), just after parachute deployment (10), before landing (11), and after landing (12) could be clearly determined with the help of the activity measure. We decided to analyze the 500 m altitude point also for our experi- enced jumpers, which differs from the time point “midpoint altitude” used by Fenz and Epstein (1967) for their experienced jumpers, to provide a time equiv- alent point for the two groups for a direct comparison. Preliminary results with experienced jumpers, to test the recording system under these conditions, showed no remarkable alterations in the physiological mea- sures between 500 m and reaching the final altitude. Immediately after the landing, the subjects gave estimations of their perceived states of physiological arousal at the various times of measurement on a graphic rating scale, as follows: “Please rate on the following scales how much tension (Anspannung) and excitement (Aufregung) you felt at the different points in time,” ranging from “no arousal whatsoever" (gar nicht aufgeregt) (1) to “very strongly aroused” (sehr stark aufgeregt) (10). To control for the possible influ- ence of anxiety as a sclective personality factor, the subjects completed the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) of Laux, Glanzmann, Schaffner, and Spielber- ger (1981) in the German form and Byrne's Repres- sion-Sensitization-Scale (Byrne, 1961; German form by Krohne, 1974) in the afternoon after the jump. The instruction for the STAI-state referred to the time im- mediately before the exit. _ The novice sky divers completed “static line” jumps from an altitude of approximately 1000 m, at which the parachute is opened by a release cord se- Cured to the plane. The experienced sky divers jumped from an altitude of between 2500 and 3500 m. Fenz and Epstein (1967) adjusted the heart rates of six ex- Perienced jumpers who jumped from a height of ap- Proximately 4500 m for altitude, which resulted in an inverted V-shape heart rate curve for the experienced Parachutists. This correction for altitude was not used in the present study because the experienced jumpers Arousal During Parachute Jumping 97 in this study jumped from a 1000-2000 m lower al- titude. Furthermore different studies report no in- crease in heart rate up to an altitude of 5000 m (Best & Taylor, 1966) and no significant alteration in heart rates with jumps at altitudes of 3000 or 4000 m (Reid et al,, 1971), Moreover, as mentioned above, we did not find any alteration in the heart rate values of our experienced jumpers during the ascent of the plane up to the final altitude. Data Analysis A series of ANOVAs with repeated measures (group X time), were performed, The heart rate and respi- ration rate values were standardized over 10-s inter- vals to the respective measurement times. To control for the influence of activation induced arousal during the jump sequence, covariance analysis with repeated measures with the covariate “activation measure” was performed to establish the heart and respiration rates. All repeated measures analyses of variance and co- variance were corrected for nonsphericity by the Geis- ser-Greenhouse method (Vasey & Thayer, 1987). For each repeated measure we report the uncorrected de- grees of freedom and the epsilon-corrected p value. Results The mean scores of the self-rated psychophysi- ological arousal for experienced and inexperienced sky divers at the different points in time before, during, and after the jump are shown in Figure 1. The curve for the beginners rises continuously until, the point just before parachute deployment (9) and then falls until the point after landing (12). The curve for experienced jumpers rises sharply from -O Experienced = Novice Subjective rating 123456789 10N12 Jump sequence Figure 1. Mean self ratings of perception of physio- logical arousal for experienced and novice parachutists as a function of events leading to and during a jump. (Note: Point 8 on the abscissa represents the time point just be- fore exit.)98 Schedlowski and Tewes the point altitude of 500 m (7) until the point just before exit (8), falls until the point after parachute deployment (10), and then rises again for the critical phase of the landing. The analysis of variance shows a significant group effect (experienced vs. inexpe- rienced), F(1/34)= 12.75, p<.01, and a significant time effect, FU 1/374)= 31.42, p<.01, and a signif- icant Group X Time interaction, F(11/347)=2.22, p<.05. The subjects completed the STAI and Repres- sion-Sensitization scales to ascertain whether and how far anxiety as a personality factor influences the perceived parameters in experienced and in- experienced parachutists. Although it is true that novice jumpers (X= 49.05, SD= 12.13) and expe- rienced jumpers (X = 38.38, SD=6.36) differed sig- nificantly in their anxiety states just before the exit, 1(34)= —3.30, p<.01, there were no prejump dif- ferences between the groups with respect to trai anxiety. The results of the covariance analysis with STAI and Repression-Sensitization as covariates re- vealed no significant correlation between these fac- tors and the dependent variables. Figure 2 depicts the mean scores for the motor activity for experienced and novice parachutists for the events from waiting for the plane (3) to after landing (12). The curves for the two groups show a similar pattern. Experienced jumpers are more active than novice while waiting on the aircraft whereas the unexperienced skydivers showed slightly more activity during the ascent of the plane (5-7). The curves for both groups rise sharply be- fore parachute deployment (9). While descending under parachute, experienced jumpers show a great- er motor activity than beginners, possibly because O Fapenienced = Nowe 30 0 (2 0 3456789 Jump sequence Figure 2. Motor activity for experienced and novice parachutists as a function of events leading to and during a jump. won Vol. 29, No. 1 the experienced sky divers carry out more maneu- vers with the open parachute than novices do. Analysis of variance revealed no significant group effect, F(1/34)=.15, p>.05, a significant time effect, F(9/306)=60.36, p<.01, and a significant Group X Time interaction, F(9/306)=3.94, p<.05. The mean scores of heart rate adjusted for motor activity for both groups during the jump sequence are shown in Figure 3. The curves for heart rate scores run almost parallel for novice and experi- enced jumpers. They reach their first peak after boarding the aircraft (5), decline to a plateau phase at the points of take-off (6) and 500 m altitude (7), reach another peak just before parachute deploy- ment (9), then fall again continuously until the point after landing (12). The covariance analysis with the activity as the covariate shows a significant difference between the groups, F(1/33)=5.30, p< .05, and a significant time effect, F(9/305)= 89.66, p<.01, but no significant Group X Time interac- tion, F(9/305)=.99, p>.05. ‘The mean scores of respiration rate adjusted for motor activity are shown in Figure 4. The respi- ration rates for the novice sky divers rise until the point of take-off (6), then fall again until an altitude of 500 m is reached (7), attaining their highest val- ues just before parachute deployment (9). The curves for the experienced jumpers reached their first peak for the period while the subjects were waiting for the plane (3), ran roughly parallel to those of the inexperienced jumpers until the point just before exit (8), then declined just before par- achute deployment (9). This surprising fall in the respiration rate, which contrasts with the results of heart rate measurement, can be explained by the D Experienced = Novice 180 160 140 120 10 80 Heart rate (beats / min.) cy 349 67% 910n 12 Juimp sequence Figure 3. Heart rate for experienced and novice par- achutists as a function of events leading up to and during a jump.January, 1992 Exp = Novice min.) Respiration rate 345678 90112 Jump sequence Figure 4, Respiration rate for experienced and novice parachutists as a function of events leading up to and during a jump. different freefall time for the two groups. Although the actual freefall time in the novice jumpers lasted for a maximum of 3-5 s and it took about 10-15 S until the parachute was completely and securely Teleased (seconds in which the pace of the jumper's fall had already slowed down to almost the para- chute speed), the experienced jumpers fell at a speed of approximately 200 km/h until immediately be- fore parachute deployment. At this speed, a slowing down of the respiratory activity occurs. This result also confirms the experiences reported by the jump- ers of a slowing down of breathing during the free- fall. The covariance analysis revealed no significant group effect, F(1/33)=3.43, p>.0S, a significant time effect, (9/305) = 5.02, p<.01, and a Group X Time interaction, F(9/305)=2.71, p<.05. If one considers the different situational conditions of ex- Perienced and inexperienced jumpers at the point (9) just before parachute deployment and excludes the measurement at that point from the analysis, neither a significant group effect F(1/33)=.31, p>.5, nor a statistically relevant interaction, F(8/ 271)= 1.67, p>.05, is found. To determine whether the different levels of Jumping experience contribute to the results, we divided the group of experienced jumpers into sub- Jects with less experience (N=9, 95-810 jumps, X=455), who are also more comparable to the ex- Perience level reported by Fenz and Epstein (1967) and subjects with more experience (N=9, 850- 2500 jumps, X= 1360). A series of ANOVAs with Tepeated measures were performed again. __ Differing levels of jumping experience had no influence on the dependent variables. No significant differences were found between the groups of ex- Arousal During Parachute Jumping 99 perienced parachutists, neither in the subjective rat- ings nor in the physiological measures of heart rate and respiration rate. If one compares the subjective ratings of the beginners with both groups of the experienced subjects, the analysis of variance shows significant group effects for novice vs. less experi- enced, F(1/25)=7.33, p<.05, for novice vs. more experienced, F(1/25)=6.55, p<.05, but no inter- actions. Analyzing the heart rate values, beginners show significantly higher heart rates compared to the group of more experienced jumpers only, where- as the pattern of the heart rate changes is nearly the same as in Figure 2. The analysis of covariance revealed a significant group effect, F(1/24)=9.09, p<.01, and a significant Group X Time interac- tion, F(9/224)=3.95, p<.01. The significant inter- action is attributed to three points in time. After boarding the aircraft, before parachute opening, and after landing, the heart rate for the novices was on average 22 bpm higher than for the experienced jumpers. No significant differences in the respira- tion rates were found between the novice group and the total experienced group of parachutists. Table 1 summarizes means and standard devia- tions of the dependent variables for the different groups for selected timepoints. Note that for heart rate and respiration rate the raw scores (unadjusted for motor activity) are shown. The measurements were carried out on 18 ex- perienced and 18 novice parachutists at 12 different points in time. Simple Pearson correlations were performed to determine the intrasubject correla- tions between the dependent measures. f-tests were performed to determine whether the mean Z-trans- formed correlations were significantly greater than zero and whether the sets of correlation coefficients differed significantly between groups (sce Table 2). The highest mean correlations were seen between the self ratings of physiological arousal and the heart rate in the experienced jumpers (about 50% of common variance), with 14 correlations signifi- cant at the 5% level compared to 7 significant cor- relations in the novice group. The correlations be- tween the self ratings and the respiration rate do not differ significantly from zero nor is there a sig- nificant difference between the groups. The mean correlations between heart rate and respiration rate are significantly higher for the novice than for the experienced sky diver and the mean correlation for both groups for heart rate and subjective rating is significantly higher compared to the mean corre- lation for respiration rate and the subjective ratings. Discussion The question we addressed in this study was to what extent experienced and inexperienced para-100 Schedlowski and Tewes Vol. 29, No. 1 ‘Table 1 Means and standard deviations of the dependent variables for experienced and novice parachutists and for the subgroups of the experienced jumpers for selected timepoints Experienced Parachatists (a 18) ‘Novice Parachutists (n= 18) Respiration Respiration Timepoints -Self-Rating Activity Heart Rate Rates Self-Rating Activity Heart Ratet Rate+ evening before : ‘he jump (1) 0.24 (0.44) 76.11 (9.66) 15.83 ( 583) 2,00 (2.66) 71.44 (10.98) 16.72 5.60) after boarding the plane (5) 2.23 (1.59) 3.88 ( 2.16) 112.77 (20.74) 29.61 ( 7.94) 4.46 (3.04) 6.44,( 2.70) 126.61 ( 9.50) 33.16 ( 7.95) at 500 meters altitude (7) 2.11 (1.82) 2.61 ( 1.41) 101.44 (19.70) 21.05 ( 5.09) 5.88 (2.84) 4.55( 1.72) 111.00 ( 8.13) 25.11 ( 8.44) just before exit (8) 6.18 (2.41) 6.55 ( 7.04) 132.77 (20.15) 31.16 (11.66) 7.32 (2.59) 6.88 ( 3.46) 138.27 (10.15) 31.33( 8.58) before parachute deployment (9) 5.32 (2.53) 30.38 (13.19) 193.72 (17.07) 21.27 (13.91) 7.47 (2.27) 39.22 (18.28) 171.38 (11.06) 42.11 (17.73) before landing (11) 3.60 (2.52) 7.88 ( 3.39) 142.27 (18.82) 30.44 (12.66) 4.82 (2.55) 4.88 ( 1.81) 145.77 (16.16) 30.66 ( 7.13) Less Experienced Parachutists (n—9) More Experienced Parachutits (a—9) Respiration Respiration Self-Rating Activity Heart Rates Rate" = Self-Rating Activity Heart Rates Rates evening before the jump (1) 0.41 (0.58) 75.44 (11.26) 15.88 ( 7.67) 0.07 (0.13) 16.77 ( 8.40) 15.77 ( 3.59) after boarding the plane (5) 2.23 (1.75) 4.22 ( 1.56) 118.22 (21.99) 30.33 ( 5.54) 2.23 (1.53) 3.55 ( 2.69) 107.33 (19.06) 28.88 (10.10) at $00 meters altitude (7) 2.50 (1.95) 2.88 ( 1.36) 107.22 (23.31) 23.00( 4.71) 1.73 (1.71) 2.33( 1.50) 95.66 (14.36) 19.11 ( 4.93) just before exit (8) 5.73 (2.67) 7.11 ( 8.23) 138.88 (25.92) 33.77 (13.91) 6.64 (2.17) 6.00 ( 6.08) 126.66 (10.35) 28.55 ( 8.94) before parachute eployenent (9) 4.38 (2.18) 36.11 (1431) 1585 (17.28) 23.46 (15.59) 6.26 (261) 246 ( 9.55) 148.66 (16.30) 19.11 (12.56) just landing (11) 3.77 (2.35) 8.11 ( 2.80) 152.11 (14.52) 35.22 (13.15) 3.43.(2.81) 7.66 ( 4.06) 132.77 (18.90) 25.66 (10.80) * Data are not adjusted for motor activity. Table 2 Means, standard deviations (SDs), and significance levels of the Zatransformed correlations and t values for the difference between the sets of correlation coefficie Mean + Values (SDs Parentheses) Experienced Dependent Measures (n= 18) ' Self-Rating/Heart Rate 69 (29 4452" 2.51" SelF-Rating/Respiration Rate 1837) 3330), 202 Heart Rate/Respiration Rate 35 (37) ‘S732 2.75% Both Groups (n—36) S6(43"—27(34) a5 "p<.05, *p<.01 chutists differ in the degree of their physiological parachute jump. The results show that novice sky reactivity and their perception of this arousal at the divers perceive themselves at all times in a higher different points in time before, during, and after a state of arousal than do experienced jumpers. ForJanuary, 1992 both groups, the peak of arousal occurred during the exit, or just before parachute deployment. Fur- ther, the novice jumpers display higher heart rate values than the experienced jumpers, reaching a peak after boarding the plane and just before par- achute deployment. However, the curves of the heart rate values for the two groups run almost par- allel. There are no statistically significant differ- ences in respiration rate between the groups. Fur- thermore, the intrasubject correlation analysis in- dicates that the experienced jumpers seemed to be better informed about their physiological arousal during the jump sequence than the novice jumpers. This investigation sought to replicate the para- chute experiments of Epstein and Fenz (1965) and Fenz and Epstein (1967) who hypothesized the ex- istence of an anxiety inhibition process based upon the different time courses for self-rated fear and physiological arousal of their experienced and in- experienced jumpers. A first partial process derives from subjective fear, or a sensation of anxiety, a second inhibitory process works on physiological levels. Thus when handling dangerous situations experienced persons should recognize the relevant danger stimuli early on, anticipate the danger, and therefore be in a position to assimilate it partially, so that upon the real onset of danger an optimal physiological arousal is apparent on a psychological as well as a physical level. This contrasts to the unmodulated anxiety-inhibition process at work in inexperienced persons. In their case, the psycho- logical and physiological stress reactions run par- allel and reach their peak upon onset of the danger stimulus. If one compares the results of this experiment with the studies of Epstein and Fenz, one must take into consideration that parachute jumping as a sport has changed over the last 25 years. The sport has become more popular and the equipment, es- Pecially with respect to the safety precautions for the novice jumpers, has been greatly improved. The question remains open however, whether this has any influence on the psychological or physiological reactions studied here. A further difference between this study and that of Epstein and Fenz (1965) is the different method of measuring the subjective ratings. The method used in this study to rate the Physiological arousal does not necessarily corre- spond to the measure of fear used by Epstein and Fenz (1965). Therefore direct comparisons should be made with caution. However, the results of the physiological mea- sures reveal a different picture from that described by Fenz and Epstein (1967). Heart rate and respi- ration rate curves run almost parallel in the two groups with a first peak during boarding the aircraft Arousal During Parachute Jumping 101 and a second peak during parachute deployment. During the ascent of the plane, the jumpers were sitting crowded together, concentrating on the forthcoming jump. During this time physiological arousal diminished, as can be seen in the decrease of heart rate and respiration rate (Points 6 and 7). Only just before exit, when the plane reduced speed and the door of the plane was opened, did the phys- iological measures increase in both groups. This point in time also corresponded to a sharp rise in the self-rated arousal of the experienced jumpers. The self-rated arousal rises continuously for begin- ners confronted with the forthcoming adverse sit- uation. Drawing a comparison between the results of the two studies, the question arises as to whether the differences between samples of subjects in this study, especially the heterogeneity of our group of experienced jumpers, and the sample used by Fenz and Epstein (1967) might be responsible for the fail- ure to replicate the results of these authors. Al- though the experienced jumpers in this study are ‘on the average 6.5 years older than novices, we could not find any statement about the difference in age between the groups in the experiment of Fenz and Epstein (1967). Also, a second differentiation of the experienced parachutists in the groups of more and less experienced jumpers reveals no dif- ferences. These subgroups do not differ significantly in any of the dependent variables and no significant differences in the physiological measures were found between less experienced parachutists and novice jumpers. Comparisons between the begin- ners and the more experienced jumpers show the expected differences in the heart rate values. Al- though there is a significant interaction, the curves of the two groups show a similar trend with peaks during boarding and parachute deployment. Fur- thermore, taking into consideration that, by aver- aging, we might have obscured inverted v-shaped curves, we evaluated each subject’s curve. The anal- yses furnished no evidence for inverted v-shaped curves in either group, but revealed the reported two peaks trend. To evaluate the results of this study in a wider framework, we summarized the heart rate values of those parachute studies that reported comparable measurements in time (see Table 3). The data show a relatively great variability in the heart rate values between the studies, especially between the groups of experienced jumpers, which renders identifica- tion of any pattern difficult and points out that ex- ternal factors might also influence the outcome. For example, Reid et al. (1971) reported that the type of parachute used significantly affected heart rate102 Schedlowski and Tewes Vol. 29, No. 1 Table 3 Mean heart rate values reported by five different studies for experienced and inexperienced parachute jumpers at four different points in time Experienced Parachutists Novice Parachutists Mean Heart Rate Values Final Landing/ Altitude? Freefall/ After ‘After Altitude/ Freefall/ After ‘After Studies N Exit” Deployment Deployment Landing N Exit Deployment Deployment Landing Fenz & Epstein(1967 10 98 = = 10410144 - - 104 Shane & Slinde (1968) 29 139 165 178 (= = - = = Reid et al. (1971) 3 BS 135 124 wo o- = ~ = = Deroanne et al. (1975) 11 152 165 135 148 6146 164 168 176 Schedlowski & Tewes 18 132 153 144 41838 m * Approximate values, From the data reported only 3 out of 18 jumpers could be clearly identified as experienced jumpers. “Data are not adjusted for motor activity. during the jump sequence. Overall, four studies, including this one, reported substantially higher heart rate values for the experienced parachutists for the two points in time compared with the study of Fenz and Epstein (1967). On the basis of these data, one can argue that the greater quantitative difference in the physiolog- ical measures between the groups and the inverted v-shaped curves of the physiological variables in the study by Fenz and Epstein (1967) do not seem to be due to qualitatively different reactions to stress for novice and experienced parachutists. It appears that in their study, the measures were ter- minated too early before the actual goal act, the real point of greatest objective danger, to register the increase of the physiological reactions of the ex- perienced jumpers. Altogether the data of this study, and the results of the parachute studies mentioned above, furnish no evidence of a difference in the anxiety inhibition process in experienced jumpers and novices. Rather the data indicate that although growing experience in handling an adverse situation decreases physi- ological arousal, the physiological measures show the same pattern in experienced and novice jump- ers. Furthermore, self-perceived arousal decreased with increasing experience. This supports the as- sumption of Ursin et al. (1978), who reject the hy- pothesis of alteration in defense strategies, arguing that they should be conceptualized as personality traits and are far more robust against short time changes. These authors postulated the existence of different coping processes for experienced and in- experienced jumpers who, because of their differing experience, would assess the adverse situation dif- ferently. If the novice sky diver rated the situation as being uncertain and dangerous, this will be scen as high psychophysiological arousal. With the on- going experience, this diver will build up confidence in handling the situation, evaluating the situation as being safe, and the physiological and psycholog- ical reactions will thus diminish. The significant Group X Time interaction in the perceived arousal seems to support this assumption. Whereas the curve for the beginners rises continuously until the point before parachute deployment, the curve for the experienced jumpers shows a sharp rise just be- fore exit, the real point of greatest objective danger. Furthermore, in our investigation the experienced jumpers were very competent in following the course of their heart rate during the jump. This can also be seen from the high intrasubject correlations between the heart rate and the self ratings. They were astonished, however, by the absolute level of their heart rate values, which they had expected to be on average much lower. The results regarding the connection between the perception of physiological arousal and the psycho- logical variables show that the heart rate is essen- tially better suited than respiration rate as an in- dependent indicator for the determination of a gen- eral awareness of bodily state. The close connection between the self ratings and the heart rate during the extremely high arousal triggered by the psycho- logical strain, moreover, confirms the findings of Jones and Hollandsworth (1981), Schandry and Specht (1981), and Katkin (1985), who reported a positive correlation between higher arousal and ac- curate self perception of heartbeats. Furthermore, the heightened visceroceptive ac- curacy of the experienced jumpers in comparison to the novice jumpers supports the “competition of cues” hypothesis of Pennebaker (1982), according to which the conscious awareness of internal con- ditions reduces as the number of external stimuli increases. The experienced jumpers are used to cop- ing with the situation, so that they perceive internal stimuli more casily than inexperienced jumpers.January, 1992 Confronted with a still unfamiliar situation, the ex- ternal perception of the inexperienced jumpers is more pronounced than their conscious awareness of internal conditions. 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